Computers are often linked together through networks to allow the resources of a computer at one location to be used by a computer and end user at another location. It is often necessary to manage activities of a computer or determine the relative health of a computer system by viewing screen display information and/or interacting with the computer through user input devices. This is especially true for servers whose resources are utilized by many individual client computers, such as within a corporate network or the Internet. For many conventional systems, the technician or other user who needs to view the screen displays and interact with the computer being managed is required to be physically located at the site of the computer. However, it is not always feasible for a technician or other user to be physically present.
For example, a system administrator of a corporate network is present at one location, but the computers of the corporate network may be spread around the globe. To effectively manage the computers of the corporate network, the system administrator must be able to effectively monitor many or all of the computers of the network contemporaneously. Because the system administrator cannot be physically present at each computer to be managed at the same time, effective management of the computers of the network becomes very difficult if not impossible. As a result, costly additional human resources are required to improve management of the computers.
Present solutions to providing remote management are a service under the operating system or a software application such as PC ANYWHERE from SYMANTEC CORPORATION. However, because these present solutions are software based, the operating system must be operational with all services loaded to allow the remote monitoring to occur. Therefore, configuration and boot-up screens such as those provided by a BIOS are not made available to the remote location. For this reason, utilization of a hardware-based device is desirable.
Hardware based devices for providing remote management are also available. U.S. Pat. No. 6,825,846, entitled “System and Methods for Capturing Screen Displays from a Host Computing System for Display at a Remote Terminal” and assigned to AMERICAN MEGATRENDS, INC., describes hardware used to send and receive keyboard, video, and mouse input data to and from a remote computer. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,624, entitled “Systems and Methods for Establishing Interaction Between a Local Computer and a Remote Computer” and assigned to AMERICAN MEGATRENDS, INC., describes an external device, which when connected to a local computer and to a network, may be used to send and receive keyboard, video, and mouse input data to and from a remote computer. In order to remotely manage a computer using these hardware based devices, each computer to be remotely managed is connected to a remote computer through a network using either an internal card, or an external remote management device. This can become cumbersome when there are many local computers for which it is desirable to remotely monitor and manage.
An alternative is to connect each of the local computers to a keyboard, video, and mouse (“KVM”) device. The KVM device must then be connected to a remote computer via an external remote management device connected to the network. While effective, doing so increases the number of cables and connectors from the local computer to the remote computer, increasing the possibility for signal degradation as well as increasing the general clutter around the KVM since the cables and external remote management device occupies space. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.